Robin Uthappa smashed a 52-ball-80 even as Karnataka went down to Maharashtra by 26 runs in their group match in Cuttack. Chasing a tough target of 185, Karnataka got off to a disastrous start as they kept losing wickets at regular intervals.

Despite the havoc at the other end, Uthappa stood tall and played a wide range of shots to complete his half century. But towards the end, it just didn’t turn out to be enough, as his team lost yet another match in the Syed Mushtaq Ali tournament.

In a rather similar match, Shreyas Iyer scored a brilliant 78 off just 43 balls, but Mumbai failed to cross the finishing line as Uttar Pradesh beat them 4 wickets. Mumbai who batted first posted a competitive 164/6 on board, mainly due to Shreyas Iyer’s breezy knock.

But the target never turned out to be enough in the end as Uttar Pradesh reached the score with 2 balls to spare. Remarkably, the top scorer for Uttar Pradesh was Umang Sharma, who remained unbeaten on 47 runs, to guide his team home.

Tamil Nadu came up with an inspired performance to beat an in-form Gujarat by 9 wickets in Nagpur. Batting first, Gujarat never really looked like posting a big total, thanks to some great bowling by the TN pacers. They barely managed to cross the 100-run mark, as they finally finished at 105/9 in 20 overs.

The low total never really troubled the Tamil Nadu batsman as they romped home with more than 7 overs to spare. Opener Abhinav Mukund scored 67 off just 36 balls, to comfortably push his side over the finishing line. He was provided good support by Baba Aparajith who 30 runs.

Irfan Pathan yet again showed his class with a memorable 12-ball 27 and a 4-wicket haul, as Baroda crushed Madhya Pradesh by 53 runs. Baroda, who batted first posted a competitive 181/5 on the board. The top scorer was Hardik Pandya.

Towards the end, Irfan Pathan blasted 27 off just 12 balls, after his brother Yusuf had scored 15 runs. In reply, Madhya Pradesh had no answer to the pace bowling of Pathan, as they were dismissed for just 128 runs. Pathan’s spell of 3.4-0-34-4, turned the match in Baroda’s favour as they notched up yet another win.